Transformers Review – Classic Ultra Magnus with FansProject Shadow Commander

Intro:

            For those not in the know, the G1 Ultra Magnus that we’ve learned to know and love, it’s character appearance was based on a Diaclone figure also known as Powered Convoy, which in turn is based on the original Diaclone figure known as Convoy that would eventually be known all over the world as Optimus Prime. Hence, the reason why Optimus Prime & Ultra Magnus both share the same basic cab robot, albeit different in colors. Also because of this, most subsequent Ultra Magnus figures are nothing more than just an Optimus Prime repaints.

            The Classic Ultra Magnus figure takes no departure from that notion. He’s basically a white-colored version of the Classic Optimus Prime. The thing is, I’m the kinda guy who is not normally fond of repaints, which made most Ultra Magnus figures pretty much unappealing for me. Classic Ultra Magnus, however, is one of those exceptions, which you would understand why by the end on this review.

            Now before I go on any further, I would like to thank my buddy, Big Daddy for selling to me this figure at a quite reasonable price. Hats off to that!!!

Alternate Mode:

 

            Like I said earlier, Ultra Magnus is literally a repaint of the line’s Optimus Prime figure. The nothing much to say about this mode, save that it rolls quite smoothly on all his six wheels. Also, just like the original Optimus figure, Magnus too comes with a knob, hinting a possible release of a trailer that never came, but would later be utilized a certain company for their own version of the expansion trailer. 

Robot Mode:

 

            As far as his robot mode goes, he is identical to the original Optimus Prime mould, sans the colors. The only difference is Autobot insignias on the shoulder pads. 

            Articulation-wise, Ultra Magnus head can only rotate 360°. The shoulders rotate, and there are also another set of hinges that allow upward/outward movements. The arms again rotate slightly above the working elbows, and there are also wrists movements. There is also a waist joint present. The hips, although not on ball joints, have all range of motions. The legs rotate at the working knees, and finally, the ankles tilt upward and downward. 

            Just like Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus can wield two blasters as weapons. The first blaster is formed by the sorry-excuse-of-a-smokestack, which is kinda convincing, if you ask me. The second blaster is formed by his wind-vent. While the vent can be left stuck to the robot as if it were a backpack, you can use it as a blaster as well.

            Being predominantly white and blue in color, it kinda makes Ultra Magnus a bit dull compared to Optimus Prime. 

            While this version may not really appeal to most fans, as it is totally different from the original G1 animation depiction, this issue have been successfully overcome by a fans-based organization – the FansProject, who eventually came out with the City Commander set.

Vehicle Mode with Shadow Commander Set:

 

            First of all, I have to admit, I do not have the City Commander set. All I have is the Shadow Commander set (which is of course a repaint of the City Commander set), so for this part of the review, I will make do with what I have. Thus, I would like to extend my humble apologies to all you Cybertronians, and I implore you to use your imagination for this part of the review. 

            So basically, all you need to do is to insert the knob at the back of Ultra Magnus’s can into the slot underneath the Shadow Commander. Once attached, the whole set (cab and trailer altogether) looks like a huge lumbering brick that rolls smoothly on all of his, err… 10 wheels.

Robot Mode with Shadow Commander Set:

 

            I have to say, despite not actually being the actual City Commander set, the Shadow Commander set look surprisingly on the Ultra Magnus figure. The white blends in quite well with the black of Shadow Commander.

            If you’ve read my earlier review on the Shadow Commander (with Classic Optimus Prime), I had a problem of attaching the groin-guard onto the Optimus Prime figure. Surprisingly however, the problem does not exist with this Ultra Magnus figure – the groin-guard fits perfectly, which is awesome!!!

            However, it’s not really all that perfect either. Unlike the Optimus Prime figure, who have really tight shoulder and elbow joints, this Ultra Magnus figure has relatively loose joints, so posing the combined figure along with that Big F’ing Gun isn’t really an easy chore.

            Overall, however, the combined looks really nice…

Overall:

            On its own, the figure might not be a must-have. It’s rather dull. As you may already have known, this particular mould has been reused 3 separate times as Optimus Prime (red-blue combo), Ultra Magnus (white -blue) and Nemesis Prime (all black). In my opinion, if you are looking to buy either one of these mould, without considering the expansion set by FansProject, you might as well grab either Optimus Prime or Nemesis Prime, as they are probably more exciting in terms of visual designs, in my humble opinion that is.

            However, if you do have the expansion set in your mind, then I would suggest either Ultra Magnus or Nemesis Prime.  

           

            Final verdict, 7.5/ 10 (stand-alone), 9.5/10 (with Shadow Commander) 

Transformers Reviews: FansProject Shadow Commander (Rewind)

Intro:

            Hello Cybertronians, welcome to another exciting edition of Transformers Review. Today, I’ll be reviewing a very unique character called Shadow Commander. Why do I call it unique? Well, Shadow Commander is exactly a Transformer; it was made specifically for a Transformer. You see neither Takara-Tomy nor Hasbro was involved in the designing this piece, rather it was produced by an independent fan group called Fansproject Ltd, and was designed solely for a specifically for Classic Nemesis Prime. In fact, though the name Shadow Commander may be referred to as a product, it is actually referred to the armored form of Nemesis Prime. Shadow Commander as a product by itself would be completely worthless without a Nemesis Prime accompanying it, and having said that, I do not own a Classic Nemesis Prime figure – I’ll get to that a bit later.

            Anyways, Fansproject Ltd first came out with the idea to create a trailer, to be paired with Classic Ultra Magnus, in order to produce a G1 animation-like action figure, which they have done so perfectly. This was called City Commander. Initially, I’ve never even thought of purchasing either Classic Ultra Magnus or Nemesis Prime, since I already owned a Classic Optimus Prime figure, and I also have this certain rule of not buying the same TF mold twice, thus I wouldn’t have a reason to purchase either City or Shadow Commander.

            Or so I thought.

           Then came one day when I saw Shadow Commander in all its glory, fully attached to a Nemesis Prime figure, and needless to say, it looked awesome. My supplier at Teencom told me that there will only be one unit ever to be sold in that store, and that was the one that was standing inside the display cabinet.

            I was beginning to feel the itch – and that means 2 things: it’ll be good for the growing numbers of my collection; and 2, it’ll be bad for my bank account.

            Anyways, the itch was so great that I grabbed it anyway. And now, I ended up with no choice but to pair it with my existing Classic Optimus Prime. So, will the mismatch work? It’s like mixed-marriages – it will either work, or fall apart like a house of cards.

Bonus Ideas:

            Now this is an extra addition. Now in the official Fanproject storyline, a certain Nemesis Prime-ish character was the leader of the Lynx Team on Cybertron. On one mission, the Lynx Team was led into a trap and the leader of the team was ambushed, kidnapped and tortured. However, after being exposed to excessive amounts of Anti-Nucleon, he didn’t die, and was transformed into a dark version of himself, both physically and character-wise, and he calls himself Shadow Commander.

            So how do I justify my Classic Optimus wearing Nemesis’s Shadow Commander Armor suit? Easy, I create my own back-story.

            In my story, the trailer armor takes the role of the Creation Matrix, in the sense that the trailer is passed down from one leader to another, with each assuming his own suitable moniker. The trailer too serves as an ultimate weapon, to be used wisely only by the chosen leader of the Autobots. For your information, in my story, the color of the trailer is that of Ultra Magnus’s City Commander trailer. The trailer was first used by Prima (Autobot Commander), then Primon, then so on and so forth, until the reign of Ultra Magnus. In my story, Magnus, Nemesis and Optimus are brothers, with Magnus being the eldest and Optimus the youngest. Magnus took the moniker City Commander (reasons undefined). During his reign, Cybertron reached its highest point, followed by a downfall. It was during this time that the Decepticon began their rebellion. Having being at peace for so long, the Autobots were not ready for a well-organized machinery led by a powerful and ambitious Megatron. The Autobots were easily defeated and Ultra Magnus was murdered in one of the battles. With the passing of Ultra Magnus, Nemesis Prime was chosen to lead the remnants of the Autobot forces, with the moniker of Shadow Commander, to symbolize shadowy times. However, as strong as Nemesis is, he was ambitious, and also has a thirst for power, a weakness that Megatron would use to his advantage. Somehow, Megatron managed to trick Nemesis Prime to do his bidding with the promise of co-rulership, with the bonus of adding extra Decepticon power into the traditional Autobot’s ultimate weapon – the trailer. The trailer’s color-change from Magnus’s Blue to Black symbolizes the Decepticon taint. Though the power of the trailer was indeed increased, Megatron made also made sure that the powers of the trailer can never be used against himself, by creating a failsafe devices that only he alone controls. As Nemesis Prime emerges as a traitor to the Autobot cause, he predictably turned on Megatron. Unaware of Megatron’s failsafe device, Nemesis was killed. In his dying voice, he realizes the error of his ways and of Megatron’s trickery, he appointed Optimus as his successor. Optimus destroys the failsafe mechanism implanted by Megatron, but the trailer can no longer revert back to its traditional colors and a result of the previous Decepticon taint. Thus as Optimus assume the role of leader and inherits the trailer, he chose for himself the moniker “Cybertron Commander”, and he swears to reunite the entire planet and brings peace once again to Planet Cybertron.

            Now how’s that for a story? Interesting?

Alternate Mode:

            So at least, theoretically, the back-story above explains why my Optimus Prime has the Shadow Commander trailer, and you have to admit it, the story made sense and sounds good, doesn’t it? At least I think does. I hope…

            Anyways, how would the actual figure look like?

            Shadow Commander comes packed in trailer mode, in a window-less box, that contains absolutely no illustration of the product at all. On its own, the trailer doesn’t work; in fact, it can’t even stand properly without Nemesis Prime, or in my case, Optimus Prime. Pattern-wise, it follows the original scheme of Optimus Prime, with 2 white stripes curving upwards on each side of the trailer. The combination between these two looks okay to me, although others may ridicule it. Still I think it would’ve been worse if Optimus was paired the City Commander trailer. But who cares, I ain’t displaying it in trailer mode, it’s the bot mode that I’m interested in.  

Robot Mode:

            If you were hoping that the trailer was going to transform to an individual robot like Powermaster Godbomber, which then doubles up as the armor, then you’re in for a disappointment. But if you expect it to be simply an attachment, then you’ll love Shadow Commander. In order to transform him, you literally need to disassemble the entire trailer in order to form the head and chest piece; the shoulder armors; the arm and hands armors; the groin armor; and the leg & feet armor – reminiscence on how Victory Leo attaches to Star Saber. Attaching the armors on to Optimus is easy enough, though the leg and feet armors may give you a bit problem at first. I also find the groin armor to be a bit of a nuisance, as it tends to fall off often as the clipping mechanism has nothing to hold on to. But if you can somehow make it attaches to Optimus’s groin, then you are going to end up with one heckuva buffed up action figure. The combination may look awkward at first (because you keep on remembering how it looked on Nemesis Prime), but as time goes by, you would get used to the combination of colors. Besides, black looks good on anything.

            In robot form, articulation is excellent. The head rotates on a ball joint (though the head seems to be looking down often); the hand rotates at the wrists; the ankle tilts – it actually adds articulation to the entire figure.

Gimmicks:

            Shadow Commander comes with a pink colored sword, and also a BFG (Big F*@#!&G Gun) formed by the side walls of the trailer. The BFG also doubles up as a shoulder cannon. The weapon looks fantastic, and what surprises me the most is that Shadow Commander can still stand and pose perfectly even while holding suck a huge gun!!! Thankfully it didn’t end up like Masterpiece Megatron with his humongous arm cannon, which makes Megs stands awkward all the time, and makes posing Megs a nightmare.

Overall:

            Overall, if you are like me, and willing mix-marry your existing transformers with other attachments, then you could try being adventurous and get him.

            If you have Classic Ultra Magnus, go get the City Commander set.

            If you already have a Universe/ Classic Nemesis Prime figure, this trailer is definitely a must-have — although this doesn’t come cheap. This sudden itch of mine cost me a whopping RM390, which puts all the giants in my collections such as Primus, 20^th Anniversary DVD Optimus Prime, my Voltron, G1 Metroplex, G1 Omega Supreme and even Masterpiece Megatron to shame. Shadow Commander now ranks as the single most expensive itch… err, I mean Transformer figures in my entire collection. Adding that to the fact that it is only an attachment makes the price tag even more preposterous. So if you asked me, did my bank account hurt, then my answer is, “Yes, definitely so.”

            But if you asked me whether I regretted my purchase, then I would say, “The thought never crossed my mind.”

            The end product looks fantastic. Adding to the fact that Fansproject Ltd theoretically shouldn’t have access to the advance designing technologies that are available to Takara-Tomy and Hasbro makes it even more impressive.

            Final verdict, I give Shadow Commander 9.5/ 10. (Would’ve gotten full marks if it wasn’t for the groin armor)

Transformers Review: FansProject Warbot Defender 001 (G1 Springer)

Intro:

            The year was 1986; it was to be a momentous year for the Transformers franchise. It was the year the Transformers franchise went to new heights that also marked wholesale changes to the Transformers rosters. It was the year when the awesome animated feature film was released to the public. The animation may not live up to modern expectations, but the story was as captivating as ever. Children cried as they see their ultimate hero, in the form of the legendary Optimus Prime succumbed to his injuries, and also bear witness to the demise of many of their favorite Transformers characters such as Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Brawn, Prowl, Silverstreak and many more.

            However, in darkness there will always be a beacon of light, in the form of new character lineups that would take the lead in the Transformers universe. The characters introduced here would have more depth compared to those from pre-86. The new Autobot leader Rodimus Prime was far from perfect – he suffered low self-esteem. Grimlock turned from a merciless, and no-nonsense warrior, into a bumbling stupid joker (imagine The 3 Stooges). Galvatron was never a good successor to Megatron, and probably never will be. Where Megatron used to be meticulous and methodical in his plans, Galvatron was just plain insane. Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus both served as faithful and unquestionable servants to their respective leaders, and Arcee, the 1^st Transformers chick that played a much more significant role in the Transformers lore than by just appearing in a single TV episode.

            And finally, who can forget Springer, the triple-changer that reek of awesomeness, who uttered one of the most, if not the most awesome lines in the entire history of the franchise – I got better things to do tonight than die.

            I could imagine some Hollywood A-lister uttering that exact same line in some big-budget Hollywood production.

            Back in the G1 days, Springer was your bad-boy-cum-no-nonsense hero that would normally utters very cools lines. Think of Clint Eastwood in one of his western movies.

            I never had a G1 Springer figure before, but based on what I’ve seen in pictures, he was one heck of a blocky guy, not surprising for a figure from the swinging 80’s. Both of his alternate modes – the helicopter and the car – were quite believable, albeit a very futuristic one. And he was also one of the few characters, to steal a statement from a fellow reviewer, that actually carried the color green well. Think The Incredible Hulk, Yoda and Green Lantern.

            If my memory served, the G1 Springer was the only time that Springer, in figure form, appeared as a triple-changer. There were several other reincarnations of Springer from then till now, and to most of them, they share 2 other common traits – they were green and in most cases, they transform into helicopters. Apart from the Energon/ Superlink incarnation, most other figures were merely repaints and retooled from existing figures. And believe me; they really didn’t do justice to the character.

            Then came FansProject, who was inspired to do the unexpected – they took up the challenge to create the ultimate Springer. FansProject, if you guys remember, were the company that brought to us the City Commander/ Shadow Commander Armor for the Classic Ultra Magnus/ Nemesis Prime figures, and also the Masterpiece Starscream’s Coronation Set. FansProject were highly successful in providing additional accessories that accentuates existing Hasbro/ Takara-Tomy figures. However, to survive as a company, you couldn’t possibly be reliant solely on accessories, you’d have to be bolder, and hence, the creation of G1 Springer, or, in order to avoid any issues on copyright infringement, marketed worldwide as Warbot Defender 001.

            So enough with the history lessons and all the yadda-yadda and let’s get down to business.

Robot Mode:

Since Warbot Defender 001 comes packed in robot form, it is only natural that we start the review from here. Having being a figure released unsanctioned by the Big Two, Springer is devoid of any faction affiliations. This can be easily overcome by sticking a suitable-sized Autobot insignia on his chest piece. Of course, if you should prefer Springer to be a Decepticon instead, go ahead and at the same time, pray that no one calls you a retard.

Anyhow, as with the original Springer, he is predominantly green, with a little bit of grey and yellow, with a few dashes of black. In this mode, he wield a pair of blasters, which can be tugged into a pair of holsters beside his knees, and also a scimitar – you know, like the one normally used by Sinbad or Aladdin. 

Storing the Gun and Scimitar

He is about the size of your standard Deluxe-class figures and due to its predominantly die-cast (especially in the chest area) and good-quality plastic in nature; he really looks and feels durable. 

From left: Springer and Generations Red Alert

 

Articulation-wise, Springer is wonderful. His upper-body articulations are as follow. His head is on a ball joint. His shoulders are mounted on a two-hinged system: the first lets the entire arm to rotate 360°, while the second allows the arms to go in and out. The upper elbow also allows 360° motion, while the lower elbow is on a ball joint, and finally the fists turn.

 

Lower body articulations aren’t that bad either. He has a waist articulation. Hips are on locking rivets. Upper knees allow 360° range of motion, while the lower knee articulation allows standard knee movements. Finally, the ankles are on 2 level of hinges: one allows the ankles to go inward and outward, while the other allows them to go up and down.

Overall, a very nice and detailed figure, but my sole complaint is the chest piece itself – the chest plate where you would stick the allegiance insignia. Mine doesn’t seem like it wants to close. 

Car Mode:

            Now, to be perfectly honest with you, the car mode ain’t that good of a disguise at all. But since it’s supposed to be a futuristic kinda car (or an armored car at that), then I guess it is okay. All the dominant colors that were predominant on the robot mode were still visible here. 

 

             One thing that is worth noting is that this car mode is much more animation accurate compared to the original 1980’s figure, which is a huge bonus! 

            With all four wheels too roll perfectly, and I really do not see any faults at all with this figure.

Helicopter Mode:

            Springer will always be synonymous with helicopters, even though he’s a triple-changer. Even in the good old days, where at the end of the cartoon show you’d have the narrator narrates the biography of some of the characters of the show, Springer was marketed as the Mighty Helicopter, hence the reason why all of his subsequent reincarnations transform into helicopters, and nothing more. 

            So, it was more important for FansProject to make this mode, great.

            And the end result doesn’t disappoint us at all. In fact, I’d say it’s even more animation-accurate compared to the original figure. In this mode, Springer scimitar transforms into the helicopter’s rotors, which turns very freely. The blasters can be added to the sides of the helicopters for added firepower, making Springer someone whom the Decepticons really hate to face.

Summary:

            Springer is a living proof how non-HasTak related entities can excel well beyond expectation. This Springer action figure is by far the best ever figure to ever bear the Springer name, while still holding true to the essence of being Springer. Sometimes it really gets you to wonder, what the heck HasTak has been doing all these while. Why couldn’t they have ever thought of this first, even before FansProject did. HasTak should have even more resources to get it done than anybody else.

            As good as it is, as with the rest of FansProject’s product, Springer didn’t come cheap. For a mere Deluxe-class figure, he’d cost you about RM 300, mostly due to its limited in quantity. The transformation sequences are complicated as hell, but not impossible to master; it isn’t as complex as Masterpiece Megatron, but came pretty darn close if you ask me.

            Warbot Defender 001, a.k.a. G1 Springer is indeed worthy of your attention and definitely worthy of carrying the name of such an awesome character.

            Final verdict: 10/10.